Lost At E Minor: For creative people » creativityhttp://www.lostateminor.com
Lost At E Minor: For creative peopleSun, 02 Aug 2015 21:35:16 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.2Messy desks? It’s a creative thing, we have scientific proofhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2013/09/28/messy-desks-its-a-creative-thing-and-we-have-scientific-backing/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/09/28/messy-desks-its-a-creative-thing-and-we-have-scientific-backing/#commentsFri, 27 Sep 2013 20:34:45 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=171339Researchers from the University of Minnesota have proven what we’ve known all along: folks with messy desks tend to be more creative. Three experiments were conducted, one of which stuck people in two environments, one neat and one grubby. The people in the grubby room were more likely to choose new stuff compared to their […]

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have proven what we’ve known all along: folks with messy desks tend to be more creative. Three experiments were conducted, one of which stuck people in two environments, one neat and one grubby. The people in the grubby room were more likely to choose new stuff compared to their counterparts in the neat room — and we all know trying new things drives creativity.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/09/28/messy-desks-its-a-creative-thing-and-we-have-scientific-backing/feed/1How to be creative and still pay your billshttp://www.lostateminor.com/2013/09/27/how-to-be-creative-and-still-pay-your-bills/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/09/27/how-to-be-creative-and-still-pay-your-bills/#commentsFri, 27 Sep 2013 05:08:11 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=171122Let’s face it. The vast majority of creative people (artists, musicians, writers, etc.) will never make it so big that their creative output earns enough money to pays their bills. I think that creativity thrives within limits, so maybe that’s not a bad thing, but a key problem still remains: how do you pay your […]

Let’s face it. The vast majority of creative people (artists, musicians, writers, etc.) will never make it so big that their creative output earns enough money to pays their bills. I think that creativity thrives within limits, so maybe that’s not a bad thing, but a key problem still remains: how do you pay your bills? There are two standard options: a day job or odd jobs.

If you’re a writer, a day job will probably be just fine. But managing that if you have a tour (musicians) or a residency (artists) can be tricky. But fear not! With a little research to find out how some of the now-famous managed back when, the overwhelming evidence shows that there are a lot of weird ways to make money.

Before Steven King published his first novel, he worked as a high school janitor. Kurt Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership. J.D. Salinger was an entertainment director on a Swedish cruise ship (what the what?). T.S. Eliot was a banker. Johnny Cash was a Morse code intercept operator in the U.S. Air Force. Keith Richards was a ball boy at a tennis club. Jack Black was a telemarketer (although for some reason that kind of makes sense).

Marnie Stern sells plus-sized women’s clothing on eBay. Jack White was an upholsterer in his teens and early 20s (and even had a band called The Upholsterers), and recently opened a new upholstery business in Nashville. Crystal Antlers’ Johnny Bell is still a chimney sweep.

The great thing about being creative is that you can apply those skills to thinking up odd ways to pay the rent. To get your creative juices flowing, here are some things my friends have done and you are welcome to try:

Packing ready-to-eat food at a supermarket, selling wigs and fake mustaches in a carnival shop, late night janitor at a Gold’s Gym, night shift “counselor” (i.e. babysitter) for homeless teenagers at a shelter, stapling work gloves together with a massive foot-operated staple gun, human hair salesman, door-to-door salesman of plush toy soldiers that were dressed in U.S. military uniforms and marched on the spot singing Queen’s “We Will Rock You” when you squeezed their hands (this corresponded with the beginning of the Second Gulf War, so they were not very popular), remodeling a railroad tie homestead cabin in the middle of nowhere with no plumbing, doing a stock take of English rump steak sales every morning for three weeks at the local supermarket (she was vegetarian, no less), selling tickets for a sightseeing bus in Helsinki, hotel maid, hypnotist’s assistant, baseball umpire, mapping manhole covers for a surveying company in Baltimore, ambulance-chasing trainee reporter for a local newspaper, writing one paragraph for a soap company that paid as much as an entire year’s income from music, a telemarketer for business newspapers and books, a music teacher on an island for one week each month, and doing a voiceover for a snail-based beauty mask ad.

If none of those options are weird enough for you, one of my friends was a wife. You can’t get weirder than that!

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/09/27/how-to-be-creative-and-still-pay-your-bills/feed/1Creative Mornings: a monthly breakfast lecture serieshttp://www.lostateminor.com/2013/08/21/creative-mornings-a-monthly-breakfast-lecture-series/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/08/21/creative-mornings-a-monthly-breakfast-lecture-series/#commentsTue, 20 Aug 2013 17:08:47 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=165715Creative Mornings is monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee! Started in New York by Tina Roth Eisenberg, founder of Swissmiss, CreativeMornings has chapters around the world including Chicago, London, Zurich, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, and Auckland, among others.

Creative Mornings is monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee! Started in New York by Tina Roth Eisenberg, founder of Swissmiss, CreativeMornings has chapters around the world including Chicago, London, Zurich, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, and Auckland, among others.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/08/21/creative-mornings-a-monthly-breakfast-lecture-series/feed/0Modern sensory deprivation chamberhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2013/08/20/modern-sensory-deprivation-chamber/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/08/20/modern-sensory-deprivation-chamber/#commentsTue, 20 Aug 2013 06:00:35 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=165679We get it. Sometimes you just want to get away from the world. Seems to us like this sleek and modern isolation chamber should do the trick. Once floating inside the chamber, brainwaves transition from alpha or beta to theta, which supposedly increases one’s creative capacities. You can float in the chamber for as long […]

We get it. Sometimes you just want to get away from the world. Seems to us like this sleek and modern isolation chamber should do the trick.

Once floating inside the chamber, brainwaves transition from alpha or beta to theta, which supposedly increases one’s creative capacities. You can float in the chamber for as long as you want, and the longer you stay in, the more likely it is that your problem-solving skills will increase. So, who wants to give it a try?

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2013/08/20/modern-sensory-deprivation-chamber/feed/0VIDEO: 1984 interview with Madonna on Ear Sayhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2012/04/27/an-interview-with-madonna/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2012/04/27/an-interview-with-madonna/#commentsThu, 26 Apr 2012 19:46:19 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=97893I’ve been obsessed with Madonna lately. I think she is one of the most fascinating people alive today. People are very quick to dismiss her, but her level of creativity is something that is very aspirational to me as an artist. Everything is always fresh, yet familiar, poppy and explosive, but greatly controlled. Try to label her and […]

I’ve been obsessed with Madonna lately. I think she is one of the most fascinating people alive today. People are very quick to dismiss her, but her level of creativity is something that is very aspirational to me as an artist. Everything is always fresh, yet familiar, poppy and explosive, but greatly controlled. Try to label her and she’ll go from a hot pink to a mars black in a heartbeat. Madonna’s creative processes are very exciting to study.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2012/04/27/an-interview-with-madonna/feed/0Interview with Michael Cina at Ghostlyhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2011/08/08/interview-with-michael-cina-at-ghostly/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/08/08/interview-with-michael-cina-at-ghostly/#commentsMon, 08 Aug 2011 13:55:16 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=59946Ghostly is a design-based music and art brand that works with artists we love, regardless of genre or medium. I had the great pleasure of interviewing our collaborator Michael Cina on our site. Cina talks about his inspiration, in particular the fearlessness an artist must face when staring into the face of uncertainty.

Ghostly is a design-based music and art brand that works with artists we love, regardless of genre or medium. I had the great pleasure of interviewing our collaborator Michael Cina on our site. Cina talks about his inspiration, in particular the fearlessness an artist must face when staring into the face of uncertainty.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/08/08/interview-with-michael-cina-at-ghostly/feed/0Intensive theatrical make-up by Juliana Dadaltohttp://www.lostateminor.com/2011/05/05/intensive-theatrical-make-up-by-juliana-dadalto/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/05/05/intensive-theatrical-make-up-by-juliana-dadalto/#commentsThu, 05 May 2011 03:55:05 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=59845Juliana Dadalto, a multi-discipline artist from Brazil, can make the simplest detail of make-up become something magical. Her work also involves paper-craft and face painting and were nominated in two categories at the Conexion Beauty Art 2011.

Juliana Dadalto, a multi-discipline artist from Brazil, can make the simplest detail of make-up become something magical. Her work also involves paper-craft and face painting and were nominated in two categories at the Conexion Beauty Art 2011.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/05/05/intensive-theatrical-make-up-by-juliana-dadalto/feed/1Credit Counselling Society business card designhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2011/03/16/credit-counselling-society-business-card-design/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/03/16/credit-counselling-society-business-card-design/#commentsTue, 15 Mar 2011 16:30:25 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=54308The Credit Counselling Society is a registered non-profit service based in Vancouver. We created this unique business card for them by reproducing a plastic “credit card” and then cutting it in half. The name of the client and telephone number were embossed on the business card in the same way they would appear as a […]

The Credit Counselling Society is a registered non-profit service based in Vancouver. We created this unique business card for them by reproducing a plastic “credit card” and then cutting it in half. The name of the client and telephone number were embossed on the business card in the same way they would appear as a card holder’s name and credit card number on a real credit card.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/03/16/credit-counselling-society-business-card-design/feed/0Composite Dinnerhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2011/03/15/composite-dinner/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/03/15/composite-dinner/#commentsTue, 15 Mar 2011 01:15:00 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=54757In February 2011, Konstfack and Stockholm Business Region hosted a six-course dinner for over 150 guests, called ‘Composite Dinner’, featuring a twelve-meter long table of food presented in all the colours of the visible spectrum, as a part of Stockholm Design Week. There are a few simple rules of the night: make a combination of […]

In February 2011, Konstfack and Stockholm Business Region hosted a six-course dinner for over 150 guests, called ‘Composite Dinner’, featuring a twelve-meter long table of food presented in all the colours of the visible spectrum, as a part of Stockholm Design Week. There are a few simple rules of the night: make a combination of three to have in one bite, you can never have the same combination twice, but do tell other guests about your experience.

This dinner presents a stage where individual creativity morphs into collective knowledge creation. Like Konstfack, the dinner assimilates and distributes products of its wondrous assemblage. Konstfack aims to create an innovative interpretation of interdisciplinarity by rendering an artistic approach and design-thinking to an ever-widening dining discipline. Composite Dinner is the third iteration in the Mixology series, in collaboration with Master Chef Fredrik Eriksson of Långbro Värdshus. A work of Prang Lerttaweewit, Josefin Vargö, and Anders Mellbratt of The Experience Design Group, the newest discipline represented in Konstfack’s MFA.

]]>http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/03/15/composite-dinner/feed/0Harlan Ellison says Pay the Writerhttp://www.lostateminor.com/2010/03/13/harlan-ellison-says-pay-the-writer/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2010/03/13/harlan-ellison-says-pay-the-writer/#commentsFri, 12 Mar 2010 18:53:44 +0000http://www.lostateminor.com/?p=25993This vitriolic rant by author and screenwriter Harlan Ellison (from the upcoming documentary about him called Dreams With Sharp Teeth) really hit a nerve with me. As someone who works in creative fields, I’ve encountered countless people/employers who think because I enjoy art and writing, I will be happy to do it for free. A […]

This vitriolic rant by author and screenwriter Harlan Ellison (from the upcoming documentary about him called Dreams With Sharp Teeth) really hit a nerve with me. As someone who works in creative fields, I’ve encountered countless people/employers who think because I enjoy art and writing, I will be happy to do it for free. A friend of mine who I showed this to said, “I work on children’s cartoons. People think I work in a puffy cloud where bunnies do the work for me.” In a post-2.0 media landscape, companies think that anyone can write, make films, draw pictures, and do graphic design, so they are less willing to pay for quality work. I’ve known some web publishing companies that, when the recession hit, cut their editorial staff before anyone else, assuming that editing and writing aren’t real work, and not vital to a publishing company. I’ve also known videographers who used to make a living doing internal corporate videos but now can hardly find such work as YouTube has convinced companies that they can easily produce videos themselves. Any of you creative types encounter the same sorts of frustration?